Trial Ordered For Litchfield Man In Slaying

LITCHFIELD -- A Litchfield mechanic will stand trial for what prosecutors say was the execution-style slaying of a man who was his client and friend.

Judge Walter M. Pickett Jr. ruled Wednesday that there is sufficient evidence to try John Tyler Fuessenich on a murder charge in the killing of 25-year-old James B. Irwin Jr. in March.

In issuing his ruling, Pickett noted that Irwin was shot twice, once in the chest while he was standing and once in the head while he was lying on the ground. The judge said that evidence contradicts Fuessenich's claim that he shot Irwin in self-defense.

"There can be no justification for the second shot, unless he's intending to kill the man," Pickett said.

Wearing a blue blazer and a necktie, Fuessenich sat calmly as he listened to Pickett's decision. After hearing Fuessenich's plea of not guilty, Pickett scheduled a pretrial hearing for Sept. 20.

Fuessenich was charged in June with murdering Irwin, more than three months after the killing took place on March 20. Irwin, a self-employed tree trimmer, was found dead in tall grass near Bantam Lake in Morris on March 26.

Both the victim and the defendant are from prominent Litchfield families. Fuessenich is the nephew of former state police Commissioner Cleveland Fuessenich and is also the brother of a state police officer, Daniel Fuessenich.

Irwin's father, James B. Irwin Sr., owns the Litchfield Inn and the Thunder Ridge horse farm and was a candidate for chairman of the state Republican Party.

Fuessenich was described as a friend of Irwin by Irwin's girlfriend, Stacey Arledge, and several people told police that Fuessenich had done repairs on Irwin's truck. But the few details of their relationship revealed at the two-day hearing gave no hint of a motive for the killing.

One thing that was clear from the testimony was that Fuessenich tried to cover up the killing at his home repair shop on Little Pitch Road for at least a month. Officers testified that Fuessenich originally told them that Irwin had gone to the shop the night of March 20, but later left unharmed.

Only after police gathered evidence, such as part of a

taillight from the car of Fuessenich's cousin that was found near Irwin's body, did Fuessenich admit he shot Irwin.

In a 17-page written statement presented in court Wednesday, Fuessenich described a distraught Irwin, worried that he would go to jail on a drug charge, storming up to the repair shop carrying a .45-caliber pistol.

Fuessenich said he then grabbed a .357 magnum handgun from his desk, and headed toward the door. Irwin came in the door and fired at him, Fuessenich said. The two collided and Fuessenich's gun accidentally went off and wounded Irwin, the written statement said.

But Litchfield County State's Attorney Frank S. Maco said that a reconstruction of the crime scene contradicted the self-defense story. State police forensic experts determined that Irwin was shot twice, but Fuessenich said he could not remember shooting twice.

Maco said he was convinced that Irwin's killing was an "execution-style slaying" followed by an extensive coverup. In his statement, Fuessenich admitted he cleaned blood from his garage floor, melted down the gun with which Irwin was shot, and disposed of Irwin's body at Bantam Lake.

Fuessenich's cousin, Robert Bigelow, was with Fuessenich the night of the killing, and admitted he helped dispose of the body. He has been charged with hindering prosecution and tampering with evidence.

Defense attorney Alfred Mencuccini said the actions of Fuessenich and Bigelow were not a coverup, but instead the result of "fear and panic." He said the killing was unintentional.

Mencuccini argued that if it was a planned killing, Fuessenich would not have left Irwin's gun on the front seat of Irwin's Jeep, where police found it.

"I'm not vouching for the intelligence of the coverup, I'm only pointing it out," Maco said.